Horsetrading

Maurice Frankel warned us of the dangers of getting legislation passed. He should know.

Maurice is the man ultimately behind the expenses scandal. For twenty years he shepherded the Freedom of Information Act onto the statute books - then had to suffer listening to the executive take the credit, "We're the Government that introduced Freedom of Information". The fourth estate owes him bigtime. He told us of the ear-curling, head-frazzling deals done behind the scenes - we could have had the FOI 20 years ago if Clement Freud MP had been prepared to miss a train and a critical vote. Today, the whips would have him hung-drawn and quartered.

Needless to say, the back-stage cajoling of MPs and parties to buy into The Prohibition of Deception Bill has been a nest of worried wording and veiled threats. Lord Falconer (a man we intitially got all loved up over) freaked the Ministry out by ignoring all questions and repeatedly asking for the names of 11 Labour backbenchers supporting the Bill and details of the open letter they were preparing. We'd asked him if he'd changed his mind and would lend his support in view of current circumstances and growing support - Lib Dems have moved significantly off the fence, telling us late last Friday it was now part of the debate. SNP, political commentators and intellectuals endorsed it and the likes of Sir Alistair Graham (Chairman, Standards in Public Life Committee 2007/04) have signed up.

It blipped on the radars of Dizzy Thinks, Labour Home, Old Holborn and the poll came in showing 91% of 77,000 voters are in favour. This may account for a little of the movement from Tory ranks where some backbenchers have moved from - "great idea, I'love the principles, love to see it debated but ain't signing anything" to an "OK, let's see who else has signed it" position.

Ask your MP if they support the Bill here. You may find their responses amusing. Tell 'em there's only so long you can sit on a fence before getting a post up your jacksie.